France in denial as BSE-infected beef entered food chain

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A mad cow disease epidemic in France went undetected and led to almost 50,000 severely infected animals entering the food chain, a report by French government researchers has found.

More than 300,000 cows contracted BSE, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, in the past 13 years, 300 times more than the number of officially recorded cases, say researchers at France's official Institute of Health and Medical Research.

Their report reveals that while blustering French politicians blamed Britain for the emergence of the disease - and tried to quarantine the country by banning imports of British beef - they failed to adopt measures to prevent a hidden epidemic at home.

Only in June 1996 was potentially dangerous bovine offal banned in France, almost seven years after Britain. Just four years ago, as France ignored a European Union ruling that British beef was safe again, infected cattle were still entering the food chain, the researchers say.

Their disturbing findings are contained in a report published in the international scientific review Veterinary Research.

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It came as French officials revealed the death of a 55-year-old man believed to have suffered from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), the human form of BSE. If confirmed, the death would bring the number of confirmed French victims of the disease to seven.

The report's authors, Virginie Supervie and Dominique Costagliola, concluded that about 301,200 cows in France were infected with BSE between 1980 and June 2000,

and 47,300 animals at an advanced stage of the disease entered into the food chain before 1996, and 1500 between July 1996 and June 2000.

Previous official figures said there were only 103 confirmed cases of the disease between 1991 and 2000, during which period the government relied on farmers and veterinarians to report animals with BSE.

Since 2000, when controls were tightened, a further 820 cases have been confirmed, according to figures published last month, bringing the total to 923 over the past 13 years - a tiny fraction of the total estimated in the new report. "The French authorities have known for some time that the official statistics were not a true reflection of the epidemic," Ms Costagliola said.

In 1989 Britain banned the use of animal protein in cattle food, outlawed bovine offal in human food and introduced a mass slaughter plan under which entire herds of an animal showing symptoms of BSE were destroyed.

France banned the suspect cattle feed the following year and required farmers and vets to report animals suspected of having the disease. Its first reported case was in 1991.It was not until 2001 that France introduced compulsory tests for BSE in cows, older than 24 months, sent for slaughter.

The report's authors conclude that the disease was prevalent in French herds during the 1980s, but that the epidemic went unnoticed.